Humble Beginnings - A Marauders Story
by greekmarauders
Summary: A one-shot relaying the Marauders first day at Hogwarts, as told by the one and only Sirius Black!
To some, King's Cross train station may look like a place for saying goodbye, reuniting with loved ones, stressing over work, cheering over vacations, or anticipating new beginnings. For a young Sirius Black, King's Cross was a place for one thing: freedom.

He paid little to no attention to his mother's ramblings about sustaining his family's pride, making the right friends, getting into Slytherin, and being at the top of his class, he'd heard it all before. In fact he had heard the same speech on his eleventh birthday, when he got his Hogwarts letter, every time the school was brought up, a month before his departure, while he was packing, the night before, on the way to the station, and right now as he was about to board the train for the first time.

"Yes mother," he said with a sigh.

The only reason he was reluctant to jump on the train as fast as humanly possible was his 9 year old brother, Regulus. Regulus looked at him, and it looked as if he was about to cry, but of course, Black's don't cry.

The thought that he wouldn't be able to play quidditch with his brother, or hear him shrieking in Sirius' ear to wake up every morning, was wildly upsetting.

"I wish I was going with you, Siri," Regulus said.

"I know Reg, I'll write to you everyday, and in two short years you'll be there with me!" Sirius said.

Little did Sirius know at the time that after only a month his letters would come to his brother more and more rarely and they would become shorter and shorter. In two short years, him and Regulus would no longer be the best of friends.

"Go now, Sirius, make me proud," his mother said in more of a demanding way than an encouraging one.

Sirius nodded and straightened up once more before getting aboard the train, trunk tightly gripped in his hand. He looked back only once and waved to his brother.

A hand clasped his shoulder firmly and he turned around to meet a sly and smirking face with bleach blonde hair.

"Ah, you must be the famous Black heir, starting Hogwarts at last. Narcissa and Bellatrix have told me all about you. Sirius, is it?" The older boy said.

"Yes, and you are?" Sirius asked skeptically, he figured the boy must be a respected pure-blood Slytherin considering he was so close with his two most psychotic cousins. Narcissa wasn't that bad when Sirius behaved, didn't talk back, and didn't have his own opinions; but Bellatrix on the other hand, had at her young age, already given in to the Black family madness.

"Lucius Malfoy, pleased to meet you," the boy, Lucius, reached out his hand for Sirius to shake. Sirius noticed how he was being treated almost like royalty. He suspected Lucius would be disappointed when finding out the Sirius had no intentions to make friends with any pure-blood maniacs, or take any part in the dark arts.

Sirius had not been exposed to much of the world outside of his parents and the people his parents had deemed respectable, so he had heard only biased opinions; however he knew that he believed that people should not be harmed in any way based on something that they can't change. He still had the idea that maybe his parents were right, since hadn't properly met any people who weren't pure-bloods, but he supposed he would at Hogwarts, until then he wouldn't judge them.

He shook Malfoy's hand and said, "You too, Lucius."

He followed Malfoy into his compartment and sat through one gruelling hour of people talking about absolute rubbish and Narcissa practically throwing herself at Lucius. They had tried to engage in conversation at first, and they talked about quidditch for a bit of time, before the others started talking about the most effective way to knock someone off their broom while making it look like an accident.

He had been surprised by how little they all had laughed or made jokes, unless it was about other people who wasn't 'worthy' of their respect, also known as anyone not in Slytherin and not a pure-blood. He wondered if they enjoyed themselves, and if talking trash about others ever got boring after all the years they had been attending Hogwarts.

"I'm just going to use the washroom, maybe stretch my legs a bit," Sirius said before quickly dashing out of the compartment.

In his frenzy to get away from his cousins and Lucius, he bumped into another student.

"Sorry!" they said simultaneously.

"No problem," they said again in unison and laughed.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" The other boy asked. He looked about his age with messy black hair, hazel eyes, and round glasses.

"Just trying to escape my horrid cousins," he sighed.

"Where are you escaping to? We're on a train."

"The bathroom I guess?"

"You're going to the bathroom until we get to Hogsmeade? That's hours away! Surely that can't be better than hanging out with your cousins."

"Sure it is. I'd live in there for the rest of my life if it meant I never had to speak with them and the rest of my family again!" The boy laughed in astonishment.

"Well, you can come into my compartment, we still have one seat left."

"Awesome! I'm Sirius by the way."

"I didn't think you were joking," the boy seemed confused.

"No, my name. My name is Sirius." This made the boy laugh.

"Oh! I'm James! The compartment is right over here." James led him to the compartment where a sandy haired boy with scars showing prominently on his face, and a small round boy sat. "That's Remus," James pointed at the first boy, "and that's Peter," he pointed again at the second boy. James left to go to the bathroom, since that was his original motive for leaving the compartment.

"My name's Sirius," Sirius said with a wave.

"Are you _Sirius_? That is _Siriusly_ a cool name," Peter said, laughing at his own joke.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Haven't heard that one before," he said sarcastically.

They all laughed. "So," Remus said, "know any magic?"

"My mom had tried to teach me some, but so far I'm rubbish at everything," Peter said, sulking.

"That's alright, I'm sure you'll catch on quickly."

"Doubtful."

"Sirius? Do you know any?"

"Yeah loads!" Sirius said, "Wanna see?"

Him and Regulus had been taught magic since a young age at home, his parents wanted to do everything in their power to make sure their children were the best in the class. He knew almost all of the first year curriculum magic, plus some simple dark magic he didn't want to ever use.

"Yeah!" Remus said, while Peter nodded enthusiastically.

He thought he'd show them a simple levitating charm. He pulled a quill out of his robe pocket and set it on the seat.

"Wingardium Leviosa," he said with the 'swish and flick' hand movement to go along. The quill started rising up into the air.

"Woah!" Peter said in admiration at the same time as Remus said, "nice!"

At this time James walked back into the compartment, wide-eyed and excited.

"You're doing magic?" he said as he took his seat. Sirius nodded, smirking.

"Cool! Can you teach me? I've been begging my parent to teach me some magic, but they never did! I knew everyone else would have learned a bit before hand, I tried to tell them!" James exclaimed in frustration.

"Sure!" Sirius said and began teaching them a couple of simple charms that he knew very well. James got them almost immediately, Remus was very close behind, even Peter picked it up after a while.

"So what house do you think you'll be in?" James asked after they had settled down from the magic and had some sweets from the trolley in front of them.

"Probably Hufflepuff," Peter said, "I heard that's where the not very bright people who can't get into anywhere else goes."

"My dad says I could be a Ravenclaw," Remus said, "I don't know how I feel about that."

"Well I'm hopefully going to Gryffindor!" James said, smiling, "Sirius?"

"I want to go to Gryffindor, but I'd be okay with really anywhere but Slytherin, there is no way I'm spending seven years with my dreaded cousins," Sirius said, making a disgusted face.

"Your cousins really seem horrible from what I've heard you say."

"Trust me, they are. Especially Bellatrix, she's mad, literally. Madness runs in my family. One day she's playing tag with me in the yard, and the next she's talking about torturing mudbloods." They all stared at him wide-eyed, and unmoving.

"Y-you said such a h-horrible word, you must be the type my parents warned me about, blood purists."

"What? No! That's my family, I believe a person should be judged by nothing but their character." They seemed to have relaxed a bit.

"Just never say that word again," Remus said, as Sirius looked at him in confusion, "The one that means muggle-born."

Sirius nodded. There was going to be a lot he had to learn about the world outside of his family's beliefs.

"Okay, got it, sorry," he said in a hurry, hoping he hadn't made the wrong impression on his new friends.

"That's okay, you didn't know," James said. Sirius appreciated his kindness and open-mindedness greatly. "So now that we're a group," James continued, "I think we should think about our first prank, you guys like pranks right?"

"Yeah! I heard that theres a potion that can turn people's hair different colors, imagine Dumbledore with a pink beard!" Sirius said. He and James burst into laughter, falling against each other.

"How would we-"

"-house elves, obviously"

"Obviously"

"We could also-"

"Yes, on a banner-"

The two pranksters turned to their other two friends and said together, "We need a name."

The other two looked at them in astonishment and wild confusion. It was that moment that the whole compartment knew that James and Sirius would be inseparable from this point on, the best of friends.

Remus coughed in order to break the silence, "Hmm yes, well, I don't know about the pranking, it seemed like a lot of rule breaking."

James and Sirius shared a look, "It looks like we've got a rule follower on our hands," Sirius said, faking menace, "don't worry, little one, you'll be ready for pranking in less than a week with us here."

"Great," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

For the rest of the time, the four talked about Hogwarts, pranks, quidditch, and more. Sirius doubted his cousins and Lucius even noticed he was gone.

The train ride finally pulled into Hogmeade station, the four friends pushed passed everyone else, and rushed to the front, where a large man told them to get onto a small boat, and they sailed over the Black Lake, and neared Hogwarts.

"Woah," they all said looking at at the grand castle in front of them.

Once they got into the castle, a stern looking woman came up to them and introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, then familiarized them with the house system. And with that, the sorting began.

Sirius had become more and more quiet as the sorting neared, and although he made an effort to not look nervous, because of course, Blacks don't show weakness, he was ready to bolt out of the castle and take his chances against the squid. Unfortunately, having the last name Black, he was called up in no time.

"Black, Sirius" The words, his name, rang in his ears as he stepped up and took a seat on the stool.

The chatter had not ceased for his sorting, _"Just another Slytherin"_ was what everyone was thinking.

 _"Ah, another Black,"_ the sorting hat said, _"You surely have enough of your family's traits to be a Slytherin, but no, I see defiance and bravery in you. You will surely thrive in... GRYFFINDOR!"_

There were no cheers for the Black heir, everyone stopped mid conversation to turn and look at Sirius, who was walking down to the Gryffindor table with his head held high and a smirk on his face as he made direct eye contact with his cousins who were fuming. Andromeda, though, seemed to be smiling behind her book which she had not looked up from. A fork was dropped onto a plate, making a loud clattering sound.

Suddenly, an older Gryffindor with a shining prefect badge started clapping and soon the entire Gryffindor table was standing, clapping loudly, cheering, and hitting their table. This made Sirius smile even more, this was shaping up to be the best day of his life.

He took a seat and the prefect who had started the clapping, smiled at him and said, "Welcome to Gryffindor, Black."

 **A/N: Hey! I've transferred this oneshot from my account on wattpad. Leave a comment, telling me how it is or what scenes I should write next. I'm sorry but I didn't proofread this so there might be awful mistakes, but overall I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, it was longer than I had expected it to be as well, I thought it might be just over 1000 or so, but it turned out to be over 2200 words, so yay!**

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